STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Investigators are looking for any possible connections between that attack in New Orleans and the New Year's Day explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Yeah, a joint terrorism task force of FBI agents and local law enforcement is investigating that blast, which killed the driver and injured at least seven other people.
INSKEEP: NPR's Frank Langfitt is covering this story. Hi there, Frank.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: Can you work us through the best understanding of what happened?
LANGFITT: Yeah. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, they say this Cybertruck pulled up to the valet parking area of the Trump International Hotel. This was somewhere around 8:40 yesterday. Sat there for maybe 15, 20 seconds. Smoke starts to come out of the truck. Then these fireworks - you can see this in the video - they're shooting out of the truck, and then the truck is sort of engulfed in flames. The driver was killed. And as mentioned, seven people nearby suffered minor injuries.
INSKEEP: What do police know about the man who was in that vehicle, the person who was in that vehicle?
LANGFITT: Well, they know who rented the truck, but I'm not sure that - they've not identified that person yet, at least not publicly. The truck was rented in Colorado. And what they want to make sure of, I think, is that the renter and the driver are the same person. Then in terms of a motive, they haven't said anything at all. But yesterday at this news conference, Sheriff Kevin McMahill, he said there's obviously a line of inquiry here. And this is how he put it last night.
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KEVIN MCMAHILL: Well, I mean, it's a Tesla truck. And we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it's the Trump Tower, so there's obviously things to be concerned about there. And that's something we continue to look at.
INSKEEP: So he's identifying dots, not yet connecting the dots, which seems prudent at this early stage. Do investigators know what made the truck explode?
LANGFITT: Yeah. They showed a video yesterday of the burned-out bed of the truck. And you could see gasoline canisters. There were camp fuel canisters and large fireworks mortars, which explains those fireworks that burst out of the car. But police are not sure exactly how it was ignited. It's also an interesting observation - they said the bed of the truck was very sturdy, and so it partially contained the blast. And that's why the windows of the lobby of the Trump hotel weren't actually damaged.
INSKEEP: Oh, interesting. Now, is there anything concrete to connect this to the incident in New Orleans?
LANGFITT: No, there's just only superficial similarities at the moment. You know, these are apparent attacks, both by trucks, same day, these tourist cities. Both vehicles were rented on the same app called Turo, and the sheriff in Las Vegas called it another coincidence worth investigating. And once they think they have the identity of the Cybertruck driver, they'll see if there's any connection with the person in New Orleans. The sheriff also said there was no ISIS flag seen in the Cybertruck, which we saw in New Orleans. And Jeremy Schwartz, he's the acting special agent in charge of the FBI in Las Vegas, he added this.
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JEREMY SCHWARTZ: We believe this is an isolated incident. We do not believe that there's a bunch of folks out there supporting this or helping this, and we don't believe that there's any other danger to the community right now.
INSKEEP: One other thing - what is Elon Musk saying?
LANGFITT: Yeah, Steve, he praised the apparent sturdiness of the truck. Writing on X, he said this - the evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Now, reminder, of course, authorities have not designated this as a terrorist attack yet. But they did say that Tesla was helpful in the investigation. Police were able to track the vehicle from its stops at Tesla charging stations, and Tesla also supplied videos from those stops.
INSKEEP: OK, NPR's Frank Langfitt. Thanks so much.
LANGFITT: Good to talk, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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